F2: Gabriele Mini wins first qualifying of the season

      All the cars of all the Formula 2 teams immediately went to the track at the beginning of qualifying, where a crowd immediately arose, the drivers interfered with each other and complained about it on the radio. Everything was aggravated by the fact that the track in Albert Park is narrow, and in these conditions Victor Martin was the first to distinguish himself, rising to the first line of the protocol.

      However, it was clear that everyone was just accelerating, so the time of the French ART racer was blocked by representatives of other teams, but only until the next lap of Victor, who returned to the leaders of qualifying. But again temporarily.

      The first incidents began, for example, Oliver Goethe and Max Esterson could not separate on the track, and the stewards became interested in this incident.

      Leonardo Fornaroli, the series debutant for the Invicta Racing team, soon announced his claims for pole position: last year's Formula 3 champion completed a lap in 1:30.136, and this was already a relatively representative result. In his next attempt, he improved his time even further and stayed on the first line for quite a long time.

      Everyone returned to the pits for fresh tires, after which the races resumed when there were about 12 minutes left until the end of the session.

      Victor Martin showed off his speed again at this stage of qualifying, improving Fornaroli's time by more than four tenths at once.: 1:29.523.

      Due to a U-turn in the car of Kush Maini, who is driving for DAMS this year, yellow flags appeared on the track for a while, and this was unpleasant news for several riders who were on their fastest laps.

      It was expected that someone would be able to block Martin's time in the last minutes of qualifying, and this was achieved by Gabriela Mini, the debutant of Prema. His result of 1:29.286 remained the best when the session time expired, which meant that the 19-year-old Italian, the new Prema rider, won the first qualifying of the season.

      Perhaps Fornaroli would have been able to improve his time if he hadn't overdone it – his yellow car turned around, and Leonardo showed the 10th result. But he will start tomorrow's sprint from pole position, since the youth series uses a partially reversed starting order in the short race.

      The mini starts from pole position on Sunday, next to his Dallara on the front row of the starting field will be Victor Martin's car, which lost to the Italian a little more than tenth, and Jack Crawford showed the third result, but he has to lose 10 places at the start, as he is one of six drivers punished for violations of the rules committed by their teams. during the pre-season tests. Consequently, Richard Fershor, who showed the 4th time in the session, will move to the third position.

      The same fate befell Alex Dunne, a Rodin Motorsport racer who scored 5th, so he will also have to move deeper into the starting field, and Roman Stanek, Fornaroli's Invicta Racing teammate, will start from fourth position on Sunday.

      After the session, it became known about the stewards' decision to fine Mini: for interfering with the track, he was deprived of three starting positions in both races of the weekend. Accordingly, Martin will move to pole position on Sunday.

      Qualification results

      Pilot

      

      The Time Team

       Difference

       Circles

      

      1. G.Mini

       Prema

       1:29.286

      -

      12

      2. V.Martin

       ART Grand Prix

      1:29.400

      +0.114

      13

      3 . D. Crawford

       DAMS

      1:29.587

      +0.301

      12

      4 . R.Fershor

       MP Motorsport

       1:29.650

      +0.364

      13

      5 . A.Dunne

       Rodin Motorsport

       1:29.802

      +0.516

      14

      6 . R.Stanek

       Invicta Racing

       1:29.835

      +0.549

      14

      7 . D.Beganovich

       Hitech GP

      1:29.851

      +0.565

      14

      8 . L. Browning

       Hitech GP

      1:29.867

      +0.581

      14

      9 . D.Durksen

       AIX Racing

       1:29.938

       +0.652

       15

      

      10. L. Fornaroli

       Invicta Racing

       1:29.948

       +0.662

       15

      

      11. S.Montoya

       Prema

       1:30.013

       +0.727

       14

      

      12. R.Miata

       ART Grand Prix

       1:30.017

       +0.731

       15

      

      13. K.Maini

       DAMS

       1:30.058

       +0.772

       12

      

      14. A. Lindblad

       Campos Racing

       1:30.089

       +0.803

       14

      

      15. S.Megetunif

       Trident

       1:30.239

       +0.953

       14

      

      16. X.Marty

       Campos Racing

       1:30.271

       +0.985

       15

      

      17. A.Kordil

       Rodin Motorsport

       1:30.352

       +1.066

       14

      

      18. R.Villagomes

       Van Amersfoort Racing

       1:30.656

       +1.370

       16

      

      19. O. Goethe

       MP Motorsport

       1:31.308

       +2.022

       09

      

      20. D. Bennett

       Van Amersfoort Racing

       1:31.406

       +2.120

       15

      

      21. K. Shields

       AIX Racing

       1:31.516

       +2.230

       16

      

      22. M.Esterson

       Trident

       2

       -

       0